The murder of a notorious public figure places Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone in the harsh glare of the media spotlight.When the body of controversial talk-show host Walton Weeks is discovered hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Paradise, police chief Jesse Stone finds himself at the center of a highly public case, forcing him to deal with small-minded local officials and national media scrutiny. When another dead body — that of a young woman — is discovered just a few days later, the pressure becomes almost unbearable.Two victims in less than a week should provide a host of clues, but all Jesse runs into are dead ends. Yet what may be the most disturbing aspect of these murders is the fact that no one seems to care — not a single one of Weeks's ex-wives, not the family of the girl. And when the medical examiner reveals a heartbreaking link between the two departed souls, the mystery only deepens.Despite Weeks's reputation and the girl's tender age, Jesse is hard-pressed to find legitimate suspects. Though the crimes are perhaps the most gruesome Jesse has ever witnessed, it is the malevolence behind them that makes them all the more frightening.Forced to delve into a world of stormy relationships, Jesse soon comes to realize that knowing whom he can trust is indeed a matter of life and death.
Each spring surprised Jesse. In the years since he’d come to Paradise he never remembered, from year to year, how pretty spring was in the Northeast. He stood now among the opening flowers and the new leaves, looking at a dead man, hanging by his neck from the limb of a tree in the park, on Indian Hill, overlooking the harbor.
Peter Perkins was taking pictures. Suitcase Simpson was running crime-scene tape and shooing away onlookers. Molly Crane sat in a squad car, talking with a woman in jogging clothes. Molly was writing in her notebook.
“Doesn’t look like his neck is broken,” Jesse said.
Perkins nodded.
“Hands are free,” Jesse said.
Perkins nodded.
“Nothing to jump off of,” Jesse said. “Unless he went up in the tree and jumped from the limb.”
Perkins nodded.
“Open his coat,” Peter Perkins said.
Jesse opened the raincoat. An argyle sweater beneath the coat was dark and stiff with dried blood.
“There goes the suicide theory,” Jesse said.
“ME will tell us,” Perkins said, “but my guess is he was dead before he got hung.”
Jesse walked around the area, looking at the ground. At one point he squatted on his heels and looked at the grass.
“They had already shot him,” Jesse said. “And dragged him over...”
“Sometimes I forget you grew up out west,” Perkins said.
Jesse grinned and walked toward the tree, still looking down.
“And looped the rope around his neck...”
Jesse looked up at the corpse.
“Tossed the rope over the tree limb, hauled him up, and tied the rope around the trunk.”
“Good-sized guy,” Perkins said.
“About two hundred?” Jesse said.
Perkins looked appraisingly at the corpse and nodded.
“Dead weight,” Perkins said.
“So to speak,” Jesse said.
“Maybe more than one person involved,” Perkins said.
Jesse nodded.
“ID?” Jesse said.
“None,” Perkins said. “No wallet, nothing.”
Another Paradise police car pulled up with its blue light revolving, and Arthur Angstrom got out.
“Anyone minding the store?” Jesse said.
Angstrom was looking at the hanging corpse.
“Maguire,” Angstrom said. “Suicide?”
“I wish,” Jesse said.
The blue light on Angstrom’s cruiser stayed on.
“Murder?” Angstrom said.
“Peter Perkins will fill you in,” Jesse said. “After you shut off your light.”
Angstrom glanced back at the cruiser, and looked at Jesse for a moment as if he were going to argue. Jesse looked back at him, and Angstrom turned and shut off his light.
“Car keys?” Jesse said.
“Nope.”
“So how’d he get here?”
“Walked?” Perkins said.
Angstrom joined them.
“Or came with the killers,” Jesse said.
“Or met them here,” Perkins said, “and one of them drove his car away after he was hanging.”
“Or took a cab,” Jesse said.
“I can check that out,” Angstrom said.
Jesse looked at his watch.
“Eight thirty,” he said. “Town cab should be open now.”
“I’ll call them,” Arthur said. “I know the dispatcher.”
“Arthur, you’re the cops, you don’t have to know the dispatcher.”
“Sure,” Angstrom said, “of course.”
He walked to his car. Jesse watched him go.
“Arthur ain’t never quite got used to being a cop,” Peter Perkins said.
“Arthur hasn’t gotten fully used to being Arthur,” Jesse said.
Jesse slid into the backseat of the cruiser, where Molly was talking to the young woman.
“This is Kate Mahoney,” Molly said. “She found the body.”
“I’m Jesse Stone,” he said.
“The police chief,” the woman said.
“Yes,” Jesse said. “How are you?”
The woman nodded. She was holding a middle-aged beagle in her lap.
“I’m okay,” she said.
Jesse looked at Molly. Molly nodded. Yes, she was okay. Jesse scratched the beagle behind an ear.
“Tell me what you saw,” Jesse said.
“I just told her,” the woman said.
She was probably thirty, brown hair tucked up under a baseball cap. Blue sweatpants, white T-shirt, elaborate running shoes. Jesse nodded.
“I know,” he said. “Police bureaucracy. You were out running?”
“Yes, I run every morning before I have breakfast.”
“Good for you,” Jesse said. “You usually run up here?”
“Yes. I like the hill.”
“So you came up here this morning as usual...” Jesse said.
“And I saw him...” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Hanging there.”
Jesse was quiet. The woman shook her head briefly, and opened her eyes.
“See anybody else?”
“No, just...”
She made a sort of rolling gesture with her right hand. The beagle watched the movement with his ears pricked slightly.
“Just the man on the tree?” Jesse said.
“Yes.”
“You know who he is?” Jesse said.
“No. I didn’t really look. When I saw him, I ran off and called nine-one-one on my cell phone.”
“And here we are,” Jesse said.
“I don’t want to look at him,” the woman said.
“You don’t have to,” Jesse said. “Is there anything else you can tell us that will help us figure out who did this?”
“‘Did this’? It’s not suicide?”
“No,” Jesse said.
“You mean somebody murdered him?”
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“Omigod,” she said. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“You just discovered the body. You won’t have any trouble.”
“Will I have to testify?”